LRIG“Connecting laboratory automation users since 1981”

LRIG PhiladelphiaOctober 8, 2015

Andy Zaayenga, LRIG Executive Chair

What is LRIG? LRIG is a not-for-profit professional

society focused on laboratory automation in life sciences

Our membership consists of over 15,000 scientists, engineers, laboratory automation professionals and students.

Our MissionThe LRIG mission is to provide and facilitate instruction for both self-development and the

benefit of the laboratory automation community. To do this, we:

Provide physical and virtual meeting places for scientists, engineers and academics interested in furthering their careers and the field of laboratory automation.

Facilitate communication among users and providers of laboratory automation.

Provide a platform to encourage an open discussion of new automation techniques and technologies that can be beneficial to the laboratory automation community.

Share current best practices and experiences in the design and implementation of laboratory automation.

Encourage members to actively contribute, via the use of presentations and discussion groups.

Evaluate new technologies / instruments and share our findings at regional meetings, discussion groups and with on-line presentations archive.

Why participate? Technology Community Share Learn Help Science Network Business Network Social Network Advance the state of

the art Your membership and

relationships in LRIG follow you throughout your career, wherever you move

But first, some history LRIG started in the early 1980’s, concurrent with

the emergence of Zymark robotics, as a user group within Johnson & Johnson in Raritan NJ.

The first organizers were Alan Greenberg and Richard Young in AR&D.

Subsequently, other researchers in local companies expanded the group. Schering, Novartis and Warner Lambert joined – notable pioneers were Larry Lorenz, Bob Foster, and Ed Kanczewski.

Gathering steam By the mid-1990’s we had over 200 members

and felt quite ambitious! Meetings were typically held in a conference

room at one of the local pharmas – if we had 35 attendees it was considered a huge success.

Dennis France of Novartis chaired LRIG during this time and into the next period of expansion.

We resolved that a basic tenet of the group was to maintain free membership (and serve great food at the meetings!)

Early Days

Learning and Fun!

Pioneering the Industry

Branching out In 1996 we thought that this Internet thing

was a good way to let people know about LRIG. Our first web pages hit the Net in April 1996.

Immediately our membership expanded and we began to see attendees at the New Jersey meetings from all over the US and even Europe.

We decided to franchise the LRIG model and help other geographical regions start their own chapter.

The Chapters Steve Fillers from the NJ chapter took a position with

Biogen in Boston and successfully started up the LRIG New England chapter.

LRIG Philadelphia Chapter started in 2005, championed by Tony Nardei.

Many chapters followed suit and continue to do so. Our model is for existing chapters to provide enabling tools, startup funds and guidance to emerging groups.

Rebranding

Structure Each chapter is incorporated

independently as a nonprofit and is autonomous – control, direction and governance of each chapter is set locally

All LRIG Officers are unpaid volunteers

Executive Committee consisting of representatives from each chapter provide global direction

How does LRIG measure success?

Membership numbers Meeting attendance Presentations generated Discussion groups activity Networking activity Alliances with like-minded groups Member feedback

Membership Numbers (2013)

Total Members 15,956 +Mid Atlantic 4,828New England 4,019Southeast 1,947Bay Area 1,421San Diego 1,080Northwest 1,066Midwest + Texas 1,777Washington Metro 965Upstate NY 1,145Rockies 305Philadelphia 1,836United Kingdom 2,700 + ELRIGGermany 484 + ELRIG.de“No Chapter” 1,128

LRIG.org

LinkedIn (and Facebook too!)

10,442

2,371

816

24

79

59

1,823

New LinkedIn Group! Laboratory Automation for Genotyping & Gene Expression Profiling

Discussions on LinkedIn

Careers on LinkedIn

Promotions on LinkedIn

Twitter

LRIG Weekly News Digest

SLAS LabAutopedia

Late Night with LRIG at SLAS

Alliances

The Most Important Metric

Our members’ feedback means more than any number:

Please convey my thanks to you and all the LRIG officers for a wonderful meeting on Wednesday. I saw several of my Merck colleagues there (more of my colleagues are interested in robotics, beyond my HTS colleagues; I believe some joined LRIG for the first time at this meeting). One friend from another company, when he found that his management would not allow him the time to attend the pre-LRIG seminar and the meeting, actually took a vacation day in order to attend, telling me, "I learn so much at these meetings." Great job, once again.

How do we do it? Volunteer officers!

LRIG is run with all volunteer boards and committee members –many hands lighten the load!

Committed & enthusiastic members Supportive automation tools

providers They “pay the freight” by exhibiting and

sponsoring meetings

Relevance & Responsiveness

Robotics? Acoustic

Dispensing Microfluidics Nano-PCR Cell Sorting Assay-on-a-Chip Next Gen

Sequencing

Drive chapter topics locally With global

perspective Respond to local

scientific environment and needs of local researchers

“Connecting laboratory automation users since 1981”